HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Police in Alabama said Tuesday that a woman who was on MTV’s reality show Catfish may have died because she used drugs.
Hoover Police Lt. Charles McDonald said that early Saturday morning, police were called to an apartment in a suburb of Birmingham about a woman who was in trouble.
The woman was named Ashley Sawyer, who is 23 years old. In 2013, she was on an MTV show about online dating scams. In the episode, she met Michael Fortunato, a longtime online friend. After talking in an online chatroom, the two people used pictures of themselves that had been changed.
MTV News says that Fortunato died of a pulmonary embolism a month after the episode was shown. MTV says that Sawyer said she had problems with drugs in a recent follow-up episode. Joseph also shared his condolences on Twitter, saying he was “shocked and saddened.”
Shocked and saddened by the death of Ashley Sawyer. So sweet and kind. Thoughts and prayers go out to her family. 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/fC6qG84gfC
— Max Joseph (@maxjoseph) May 2, 2016
The official cause of Sawyer’s death is not clear.
McDonald said that Sawyer was given CPR by bystanders and that officers who came to help her also tried to use defibrillators and medicines on her.
“We are looking into it, but early signs suggest it might have been a drug overdose, maybe heroin,” McDonald said, adding that Sawyer’s cause of death won’t be known for sure until a blood toxicology test is done.
McDonald said he didn’t know how many other people were in Sawyer’s apartment and couldn’t say if any charges might be filed.
Max Joseph, who works with Sawyer on Catfish, tweeted his condolences and said that Sawyer was “sweet and kind.” Co-host Nev Schulman also used Twitter to say he was saddened by the news.